Motion controllable dual display portable media device

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus of interaction with and control of a portable media device through applied motion. In the embodiments described herein, the portable media device can include at least two displays arranged such that only one can be presented at a time. The portable media device can be configured to operate as a electronic book (e-book) having at least one electrophoretic type display having a refresh time less than an amount of time to rotate the e-book to view the refreshed display.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The embodiments described herein relate generally to interactiveoperation of a portable media device, the portable media device havingat least two displays only one of which can be presented at a time. Moreparticularly, a method and an apparatus are described for usingcontrolled motions to modify operations of the portable media device.

BACKGROUND

Portable media devices once solely used for playing back audio mediasuch as MP3 files have advanced to the point where more recent portablemedia players have become adept at storing and displaying still images.In some cases, video can be downloaded and played back at a user'sdiscretion. One area, however, that has lagged is the ability forportable media devices to provide a user with the ability to readrelatively large amounts of text, such as that found in a book,magazine, and so on in an environment that provides a true book likeexperience. In an attempt to address this problem, various electronicbooks (also referred to as e-books) have been designed specifically forreading documents converted to electronic form. Many of these recentlydeveloped e-books utilize bi-stable display technologies (such as e-ink,e-paper, and so on) that do not require power to maintain an image onthe screen. E-paper is capable of holding text and images indefinitelywithout drawing electricity while still allowing the image to be changedlater.

Unfortunately, e-paper technologies have a very low refresh rate (on theorder of about one second) compared with other low-power displaytechnologies, such as liquid crystal displays (LCD). This slow refreshrate can severely and adversely impact user's overall readingexperience. For example, once the user has finished reading a page of adocument, the page must be refreshed in order to present another page ofthe document. The need to refresh in order to view a new page can befrustrating as it requires the reader to stop and wait for the new pageto come into view.

Therefore, what is desired is a system, method, and apparatus forproviding a user with an easy to operate portable device that can beconfigured as a electronic book that can provide the user with a truebook like reading experience.

SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIBED EMBODIMENTS

It is an advantage of the presently described embodiments to provide amotion controllable dual display portable media device having at least afirst and a second display mounted in a single housing in such a waythat only one of the displays can be presented to a user at a time.

In one embodiment, a method for modifying an operation of a portablemedia device is described. The portable media device can take manyforms, such as an electronic book. In any configuration, however, theportable media device includes at least a processor, a sensor, and atleast a first display and a second display mounted in a single piecehousing such that only one of the displays is presented at a time. Themethod can be carried out by performing at least the followingoperations: detecting if the portable media device is being rotated,determining an axis of rotation from at least three recognized axes ofrotation and a direction of rotation, and modifying an operation of theportable media device based upon the determined axis of rotation and thedirection of rotation.

In one aspect, when the portable media device is an electronic book, themodifying the operation can include updating visual content presented bya display not currently in view within an amount of time required torotate the electronic book that brings the display into view of theuser.

In another embodiment, an electronic book is disclosed. The electronicbook can include at least a single piece housing, a plurality ofdisplays where at least two of the plurality of displays are mountedback to back within the single piece housing such that only one of theat least two displays is presented to a user at a time, a processorincorporated into the housing and coupled to the plurality of displays,and a sensor coupled to the processor arranged to provide at least asignal to the processor indicative of at least a rotation of theelectronic book where the rotation can be about at least threerecognized axes of rotation. In the described embodiment, modificationof an operation of the electronic book can be accomplished by rotatingthe electronic book about at least one of the at least three recognizedaxes of rotation in a first direction.

In yet another embodiment, computer readable medium for storing intangible form computer instructions executable by a processor formodifying an operation of a portable media device is described. In thedescribed embodiment, the portable media device includes at least theprocessor, a sensor arranged to sense at least a rotation of theportable media device about an axis of rotation. The portable mediadevice further including at least a first display and a second displaymounted in a single piece housing such that only one of the displays canbe presented at a time. The computer readable medium includes at leastcomputer code for detecting if the portable media device is beingrotated, computer code for determining an axis of rotation from at leastthree recognized axes of rotation and a direction of rotation, andcomputer code for modifying an operation of the portable media devicebased upon the determined axis of rotation and the direction ofrotation.

Other apparatuses, methods, features and advantages of the describedembodiments will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the artupon examination of the following figures and detailed description. Itis intended that all such additional systems, methods, features andadvantages be included within this description be within the scope ofand be protected by the accompanying claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The described embodiments and the advantages thereof may best beunderstood by reference to the following description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 shows perspective views of representative dual displayportable reading device in accordance with the described embodiments.

FIG. 3 shows representative operational circuitry adapted for use in thedual display portable reading device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates device-centric co-ordinate system with the portablemedia device at the origin {0,0,0}.

FIG. 5 shows a user centric co-ordinate system with a user holding adual display portable media device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 6 shows a representative motion controllable dual displayelectronic book (e-book) in accordance with the described embodiments.

FIGS. 7-17 show representative modes of operation of motion controllabledual display e-book in accordance with the described embodiments.

FIG. 18 shows a flow diagram describing a process in accordance with thedescribed embodiments.

FIG. 19 shows representative state diagram for portable media deviceconfigured as an electronic book in accordance with the describedembodiments.

FIG. 20 shows a flow diagram illustrating process for using a controlledmovement to modify an operating state of a portable media device (PMD)in accordance with the described embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

In the following paper, numerous specific details are set forth toprovide a thorough understanding of the concepts underlying thedescribed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled inthe art that the described embodiments may be practiced without some orall of these specific details. In other instances, well known processsteps have not been described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring the underlying concepts.

This paper discusses interactive operation of a dual display portablemedia device having at least two displays mounted in a single piecehousing in such a way that only one display can be presented to the userat a time. In one embodiment, the displays are mounted back to back inthe single piece housing. It should be noted that in the context of thisdiscussion, the display that can be viewed by the user is referred to asa primary display whereas the other display out of view of the user (atleast temporarily) is referred to as a secondary display. Of course,this nomenclature only refers to the relative positions of the displayswith regards to the user and does not in any way suggest characteristicsof the displays themselves (other than a current position). Byinteractive operation it is meant that the user can modify an operatingstate of the portable media device or content presented by at least oneof the displays by moving the portable media device in any number ofpre-defined ways. For example, the secondary display can be instructedto alter any visual content currently displayed as a result of acontrolled movement applied to the portable media device. The controlledmovement can include, for example, rotating the portable media devicearound any one (or more) of at least three predefined rotational axes,or translating (in an accelerated or non-accelerated manner) theportable media device along any one.

In some embodiments, the portable media device can recognize rotationalmovement, translational movement (that includes linear acceleration) inaccordance with a single co-ordinate axis. In other cases, however, theportable media device can recognize rotational movement, translationalmovement (that can also include linear acceleration) in accordance withmore than a single co-ordinate axis. In this way, the user can move theportable media device in any way such that the device movement hascomponents in a first direction and a second or even third direction.For example, the portable media device can be rotated such that therotation can have (presuming a Cartesian co-ordinate system) an xrotational component and a y rotational component. Furthermore, thedevice can have in addition to the rotational components in (x,y) a ztranslational component or any combination thereof.

In addition to providing the ability to control the portable mediadevice using both simple (components in a single co-ordinate axis) andcompound movements (components in more than a single co-ordinate axis),the manner of control of the portable media device can depend upon acurrent operating state of the portable media device or a type ofcontent currently being displayed by the portable media device. Forexample, if the portable media device is an electronic book (alsoreferred to as a e-book) and a specific page of an identified bookdigitally stored in the e-book is being viewed at the primary display,then by rotating the e-book “end over end” (i.e., rotating about x axisof FIG. 4) the secondary display can be instructed to present a table ofcontents of the identified book to be viewed once the rotation hasprogressed far enough to bring the secondary display into view (where isnow becomes the primary display). Moreover, if the initial conditions ofthe e-book are modified (such as selecting a word from the displayedpage) prior to rotating, then rotating the e-book in the same manner asbefore would result not in the table of contents being displayed but adictionary page presenting at least one definition of the selected word,or words.

A direction of rotation about a selected axis of rotation can be used tomodify an operating state of the portable media device. For example, ifas in the example presented above the user had rotated the e-book endover end but in an opposite direction (clock wise instead ofcounter-clockwise, for example), then instead of a table of contentsbeing displayed, the secondary display could be instructed to present anannotation pad suitable for receiving user annotations or other commentsthat the user would like to associate with the particular page (orassociated with a selected word, phrase, paragraph, etc. if selected bythe user prior to the rotating). In addition to the physical actionscarried out by the user, in some embodiments, the alteration of theoperation of the e-book or the visual content being displayed can becontext sensitive. By context sensitive, it is meant that the alterationof the operation of the e-book or visual content being displayed candepend upon the type of content being presented on the primary displayas well as the content itself. For example, if the content beingpresented on the primary display is a page from a book, then rotatingthe e-book end over end in a first direction can cause a table ofcontents to be displayed. However, if the content being displayed is amagazine article, using the book protocol (i.e., showing the table ofcontents) would likely be of little interest at that moment to the user.However, in accordance with a magazine protocol, rotating the e-book endover end in the first direction can cause a list of related articles inthat magazine or other magazines to be displayed when the rotation issubstantially completed. Moreover, if the content being displayed is atree, for example, then any modification of the operation the e-book (ormore generally the dual sided portable media device) can be related tothe fact that the tree is being displayed.

Context can also extend to the language of the material being presentedto the user. For example, the language being presented to the user mayrequire reading from left to right, or right to left, or up to down, andso on. In this way, the e-book can automatically determine the languagein which the data is being presented (or it can be manually provided)and the operation of the e-book and be modified accordingly.

It should be noted that the ability of the portable media device toconsider the context of the material being presented is not limited totextual data such as that presented by an e-book. On the contrary, thecontext of the material being presented can also be extended tonon-textual data. For example, if data consistent with an electronicversion of a book (such as text or graphics data) is being presented,then the portable media device can be configured to operate as ane-book. On the other hand, if the type of data currently being (or tobe) presented is image data, such as a JPEG image, then the portablemedia device can be configured to operate as an image viewer. In thisway, the responses of the portable media device to controlled movementssupplied by the user can be can be predicated upon the context dependentconfiguration of the portable media device. (e-book, image viewer and soon).

It should be noted that in some embodiments, the operation of theportable media device can be modified using a set of default conditionspreset by the manufacturer of the portable media device. However, it iscontemplated that at the discretion of the user, the relationshipbetween a particular user action (such as rotating the device orproviding a user input, for example) and any modification of theoperation of the portable media device can be set by the user either inwhole or part, and reset to a default state if so desired. Furthermore,when operating as an e-book, language recognition can be provided thatcan alter response of the e-book to movement provided by the user. Forexample, some languages are read right to left, whereas others are readleft to right whereas still others are read up to down.

These and other embodiments are discussed below with reference to FIGS.1-20. However, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that thedetailed description given herein with respect to these figures is forexplanatory purposes only and should not be construed as limiting.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show perspective views of representative dual displayportable media device 100 in accordance with the described embodiments.In particular, FIG. 1 shows a first side of portable media device 100that can include at least display 102 whereas FIG. 2 shows portablemedia device 100 rotated about 180° about axis 104 to reveal seconddisplay 106. In the described embodiment, first display 102 and seconddisplay 106 can be mounted back to back and be enclosed within singlepiece housing 108. In this way only either first display 102 or seconddisplay 104 can be viewed by a user at a time. Portable media device 100can include control feature 110 on the first side of portable mediadevice 100 and control feature 112 on the second side of portable mediadevice 100. Control features 110 and 112 can represent a mechanism forproviding specific control signals to portable media device 100. Controlfeatures 110 and 112 can include, for example, a volume control, a powerbutton, a mute control, and so on. In some cases, either one or both ofdisplays 102 and 106 can be touch sensitive in that the user can providecontrol signals to portable media device 100 by merely touching displays102 or 106 in appropriate locations and/or with appropriate gestures. Itshould be noted that not all embodiments of the portable media deviceare as symmetrically configured as that shown in FIG. 1. In some cases,the first side of portable media device 100 can have either more orfewer control features than does the second side, and vice versa. In anycase, the only requirement is that portable media device 100 can have atleast two displays mounted in such a way that the user can be presentedwith only one display at a time.

Portable media device 100 can take many forms. In one embodiment,portable media device 100 can take the form of electronic book (e-book)100 suitable for storing a number of digitized books, magazines,articles, and so on. As is well known to those skilled in the art,e-book 100 can present visual content (typically textual in nature, butin some cases, graphical content can also be display in whole or inpart) using any of a number of display technologies. One of the mostcommon display technologies used for e-book applications rely onbi-stable display elements found in electrophoretic displays alsoreferred to as electronic ink (or e-ink) or electronic paper. However,one disadvantage when using standard electrophoretic displays is thatthe refresh rate is quite slow, on the order of about one second.Therefore, any configuration of portable media device 100 that utilizeselectrophoretic display technology must take into consideration the slowrefresh time. For example, when portable media device 100 is configuredto operate as an e-book having electrophoretic displays, any updating ofthe visual content presented by the secondary display must occur in anamount of time t₁ (total of display refresh time and operational delaytime) that is less than an amount of time t₂ for the secondary displayto become the primary display (i.e., the time to actually rotate thee-book about an axis by about 180°).

Portable media device 100 can include a number of operational componentsas illustrated in simplified form in FIG. 3. Single piece housing 108can enclose and support video output circuits 302 (302 a can controlfirst display 102 and 302 b can control second display 106, forexample), data storage device 304, processor 306, multiple functionsensor 308, and user input interface 310. It should be noted that eventhough only a limited set of components are shown this does not imply alimitation on the functional components that can be included in portablemedia device 100. For example, in addition to the components shown inFIG. 3, embodiments of portable media device 100 can also include apower connector, a data transfer component, a wirelesstelecommunications interface, voice recognition circuits, audio circuitsand so on.

Portable media device 100 can include storage unit 304 arranged to storedata. The stored data can include media data in the form of, forexample, audio data, textual data, graphical data, image data, videodata and multimedia data typically in the form of data files. The storeddata files can be encoded either before or after being stored using avariety of compression algorithms. For example, audio data can becompressed using MP3, AAC and Apple Lossless compression protocolswhereas images can be compressed using, JPEG, TIFF and PNG compression.Moreover, video data can be compressed using H.264, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4and so on. The stored media contained in the storage unit 304 can beaccessed by processor unit 306 that can search and retrieve the storedmedia for reproduction to a user of portable media device 100.

Portable media device 100 can include sensor 308 that can function as,without limitation, an accelerometer, a gyroscope or another motion andor acceleration sensing device. Sensor 308 can detect at least a changein position, orientation or movement of portable media device 100.Typically, accelerometers can measure linear motion and acceleratedlinear motion directly, while gyroscopes can measure angular motion andangular acceleration directly. In some embodiments, sensor 308 canprovide geographical location services to processor 306 along the linesof, for example, GPS, cellular phone location services, and so on.Sensor 308 can detect changes in position, orientation or movement, andacceleration along a number of different reference directions, singly orin combination, as shown in FIG. 4 illustrating device-centricco-ordinate system 400 with portable media device 100 at the origin{0,0,0}. In this way, sensor 308 can detect (in any combination) lineartranslational motion 402 along z-axis 404, linear translational motion408 along x-axis 410, and linear translational motion 412 along a y-axis414. Moreover, sensor 308 can detect rotational movement 416 and angulardisplacement θ_(z) about z axis 404, rotational movement 418 and angulardisplacement θ_(x) about x axis 410, and rotational movement 420 andangular displacement θ_(y) about y axis 414. Based on the orientation ofthe portable media device 400 in FIG. 4, translational movement alongthe x-axis can be associated with right/left motion, movement along they-axis with up/down motion, and movement along the z-axis withfront/back or forward/reverse motion.

In certain embodiments, sensor 308 can be limited to sense only a subsetof the possible dimensions or motions to lower its complexity or cost.For example processor 306 can be configured to process rotationalsignals and ignore linear translation signals, or in some embodiments,sensor 308 itself can be configured to only react to rotational typemovements. For example, in the case where portable media device 100takes the form of e-book 100, then sensor 308 can be configured to onlyreact to rotational motions about the {x,y,z} axes and ignore any lineartranslational inputs. This simplification can make sense since it wouldbe more appropriate for an e-book to mimic a traditional book that opensright to left (or left to right). In some cases, if portable mediadevice 100 is sensed to be at rest on a flat surface such as a desk ortable, then sensor 308 can only provide input data to processor 306related to rotational data about the unconstrained axis. For example,referring to FIG. 4, if portable media device 100 is placed on table (asan xy plane), then the only rotational component possible for portablemedia device 100 is a z rotational component. Therefore, in thissituation, sensor 308 can disable any sensing circuits not designed tosense the z rotational component in order to, for example, save power.

FIG. 5 illustrates user-centric co-ordinate system {X,Y,Z}having a userpositioned at the origin, the user holding portable media device 100 inone hand. Portable media device 100 can be suitably configured in bothsize and weight to be easily carried in one hand by the user such thatportable media device 100 can be easily moved about in any manner in anyof the three spatial device co-ordinates. Accordingly, due to the easeof movement, in order for portable media device 100 (in particularprocessor 306) to correctly interpret only motion or accelerationapplied by the user directly to portable media device 100 indevice-centric co-ordinate system 400, processor 308 must be able todistinguish motion or acceleration of the user in the user-centricco-ordinate system {X,Y,Z} from motion or acceleration applied by theuser to portable media device 100. For example, if the user ismoving/accelerating in relation to the user-centric co-ordinate system{X,Y,Z}, processor 306 must be able to comprehend and distinguish thismotion/acceleration when interpreting the signals received from sensor308 (which responds to both user centric and device centricacceleration/movement). As part of this distinguishing, processor 306can filter spurious and random or quasi-random motion and acceleration(such as from jostling) from more deliberate motion or accelerationapplied by the user to portable media device 100.

As part of this filtering and distinguishing, processor 306 candetermine if an angle of rotation of portable media device is greaterthan a critical angle of rotation. In this way, if the angle of rotationmust equal or exceed the critical angle of rotation in order forprocessor 306 to consider the rotation sensed by sensor 308 as beingprovided by the user in a deliberate manner. It should be noted that thecritical angle can be modified based upon any number of externalfactors, such as a user orientation in the user centric co-ordinatesystem, historical data related to user movements, etc. Only in thosesituations where the sensed angle of rotation is greater than thecritical angle of rotation will processor 306 issue instructions toportable media device 100, otherwise, the presumption is the rotationwas inadvertent and no instructions are issued. In some cases, however,the processor 306 can instruct portable media device 100 to send anindication to the user to confirm if the rotation was deliberate or not.

In some embodiments, processor 306 can issue instructions even in thosecases where the angle of rotation is not greater than the criticalangle. This situation can arise when, for example, portable media device100 can operate in what can be referred to as a flip or flick mode. Byflick mode it is meant that by quickly moving portable media device 100up (or down) in short motions (similar to flicking or flipping pages),processor 306 can issue flip instructions. For example, if portablemedia device 100 is presenting images (such as a slide show), the usercan quickly advance (or regress) through the images by flicking portablemedia device 100 at quick enough rate that the angular velocity ofportable media device 100 is greater than a threshold value associatedwith the flick mode. Moreover, if portable media device 100 is ane-book, the flick mode can enable the user to quick flick through pagesof the book, either forward or backward depending upon the direction ofrotation, for example. In some cases, since the user is not fullyrotating portable media device 100, an indicator can be presented on theprimary display showing the advancing (or regressing) images or pages byeither showing thumbnails, image numbers, page numbers and so on. Oncethe desired image or page has been reached, the user merely has tocomplete the rotation to view the image or page on what is now theprimary display.

It may be advantageous to be able to distinguish the user's orientationin user-centric co-ordinate system {X,Y,Z}. For example, if the user isin a reclining position, then processor 306 can modify instructions toportable media device 100 accordingly. For example, in those embodimentswhere portable media device 100 takes the form of e-book 100, and it isdetermined that the user is reclining or lying down, then imagespresented by display 102 or 104 can be modified to take the current userorientation into consideration when displaying text or graphics.Furthermore, the orientation of the user can be used to modify howprocessor 306 filters signals presented to it by sensor 308. Forexample, if it is determined that the user in reclining, then thecritical angle used to determine if a rotation is deliberate or not canbe modified accordingly.

For the remainder of this discussion, portable media device 100 ispresumed to take the form of dual display e-book 600 as shown in FIG. 6without any loss of generality. Accordingly, e-book 600 can include atleast two displays 602 and 604 mounted back to back in single piecehousing 606. Displays 602 and 604 can be electrophoretic type displayswhere text/graphics are presented using e-ink. Other display technologycan be used without any loss of generality. As discussed above, one ofthe disadvantages of e-ink is the relatively long refresh time requiredto update displayed content. Therefore, again for simplicity, it ispresumed that the time t₁ (i.e., the time to refresh the displayedcontent and the operational delay) is substantially less than time t₂(amount of time required to turn e-book approximately 180°).

It should be noted that the mapping of movements of e-book 600 and anypossible gestures applied by the user as an intended modification ofoperating state of e-book 600 can be “many to one,” i.e. a singlemovement can be used to indicate the several different operating statesdepending upon a number of factors other than the movement of e-book600. as illustrated in FIGS. 7-17. It should be noted, however, that theexamples presented are merely demonstrative and should not in any way beconstrued as limiting to only the examples shown. It should also benoted that the choices of axes for rotation and directions of rotationare again for illustrative purposes only and should not be consideredlimiting in any way since any axis and direction of rotation can becustomized by the user as desired.

FIG. 7 shows display 602 presenting a current page N of a book I (storedin storage device 304). The user can modify the operating state ofe-book 600 in any of a number of ways. For example, the user can rotatee-book 600 about an axis of rotation selected from at least threerecognized axes of rotation where the selected axis of rotationdetermines, at least in part, a manner in which the operating state ofe-book 600 is modified. If, as shown in FIG. 7, the user selects x axis410 as the axis of rotation and rotates e-book 600 more than thecritical angle θ_(crit) in a first direction (which for this example canbe clockwise), processor 306 can instruct the appropriate operationalcomponents in e-book 600 to update visual content presented by display604 as shown in FIG. 8. In one embodiment, the updated visual contentpresented by display 604 as a result of the rotation can be a table ofcontents for Book I. Of course, the updated visual content can be anycontent related to Book I as a whole (such as the table of contents) orcontent related specifically to Page N, or in some cases an entirelydifferent page such as a next page (i.e., Page N+1) or a previous page(Page N−1). In any case, the manner in which the operation of e-book 600is modified (or more specifically in these examples, the updating of thedisplayed visual content), can be chosen by the user or left to defaultvalues pre-selected by the manufacturer of e-book 600.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show how the result of rotation about x axis can bemodified simply by choosing to rotate e-book 600 in a second direction(in this case, counter-clockwise) different from the first directionshown in FIG. 7. In this case, instead of presenting the table ofcontents for Book I, FIG. 10 shows display 604 presenting an interactiveannotation pad in which the user can input information such as notes orother comments which may or may not be related to page N or even Book I.

FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrates that providing a user input prior to therotation about an axis can dramatically affect the post rotation stateof e-book 600. Again using the example of FIG. 7 where Page N of Book Iis presented by display 602, in this case, however, the user hasselected a word (or phrase, or sentence) from Page N. Once the user hasselected the word, the user can then rotate about x axis 410. In thisexample, the post rotation state of e-book 600 is the displaying of adictionary page having a definition(s) of the selected word or phrase asshown in FIG. 12. Moreover, if instead of rotating e-book 600 about xaxis 410 in the first direction, e-book 600 is rotated about x axis 410in the second direction (counter-clockwise) as shown in FIG. 13, theninstead of the post rotational state of a dictionary page beingpresented by display 604, the new post rotational state is that of athesaurus being presented by display 604 listing a number of synonyms,antonyms, and so on for the selected word.

FIGS. 15 and 16 illustrates how the post rotational state of e-book 600is affected when a document type being displayed by e-book 600 is takeninto consideration. Using the same initial conditions as presented inFIG. 7 but with book I Page N being replaced by Magazine J Page N. Inthis situation, the document type (i.e., magazine) is taken intoconsideration when a determination is made of the post rotational stateof e-book 600. Since it may not make much sense to present the user witha the table of contents for a magazine having a number of differentarticles since many of which may not be related at all to the currentarticle being presented. It may make more sense to present informationrelated to the article of which Page N is part. Therefore, when the userrotates e-book 600 about x axis 410 in the first direction, then a listof related articles can be presented by display 604.

All of the examples described above have relied upon simple movements tomodify the operating state of e-book 600. However, in some embodimentsit may be advantageous to define a compound movement as one that can beused to modify the operation of e-book 600. For example, as shown inFIG. 17, a compound movement can be one in which e-book 600 can berotated about x axis in the first direction twice (or the firstdirection once quickly followed by a rotation in the second direction)in quick succession. The result of the compound movement can be definedas appropriate. For example, if the double rotation compound movement isapplied to e-book 600 when a title of a magazine article is presented ondisplay 602, the double rotation compound movement can cause e-book 600to present a list of magazine articles related to the subjectcorresponding to the selected title.

FIG. 18 shows a flow diagram of process 1800 executed by a processor ina dual display portable media device (that can include an e-book) inaccordance with the described embodiments. In some embodiments, adetermination can be made of the location of the portable media devicein a user's co-ordinate space such that the processor can deduce from asignal (that can include a signal related to motion of the user in theuser's co-ordinate space and a motion signal of the dual displayportable media device in the device's co-ordinate space) provided by asensor in the portable media device. In addition, the spatial locationinformation can provide information related to the relative position ofthe user and portable media device (i.e., standing vs. reclining) whichcan be used by the processor to modify the operation of the portablemedia device. Once the location of the portable media device in the userco-ordinate system is established (it should be noted that thisdetermination goes on continuously typically in the background),

When visual content is displayed (or is scheduled to be displayed) on aprimary display, since the displays are mounted in such a way that onlyone of the two displays can be presented to the user at a time, anyvisual content presented by the secondary display cannot be readilyviewed and as such, the secondary display may not actually be displayingany visual content, in order to preserve power (especially when theportable media device is operating in battery mode). In someembodiments, the secondary display can be put in sleep or inactive modehaving no displayed content until such time as the processor awakens thedisplay in order to provide updated visual content in accordance withthe applied movement of the portable media device.

In any case, process 1800 begins at 1802 where a determination is madewhether or not the portable media device is being rotated about an axisof rotation in the device coordinate system. It should be noted that dueto user handling inaccuracy, the processor may provide a manualindication to the user requesting confirmation that the portable mediadevice is being deliberately rotated by the user. This determination canbe especially important if, as in 1804, it is determined that an angleof rotation of the portable media device is not greater than a criticalangle. By not exceeding the critical angle of rotation, it can bepresumed that the detected rotation is not deliberate but merely theresult of inadvertent movement by the user, caused by for example,jostling the portable media device, the user running or walking briskly,and so on. At 1804, if it is determined that the angle of rotation isgreater than the critical angle of rotation, then at 1806, the axis ofrotation and the direction of rotation is determined from at least threerecognized axes of rotation. Once the axis of rotation and direction ofrotation is determined, if at 1808 it is determined at the user hasprovided a user input to the portable media device, then the processproceeds to 1808, otherwise to 1810.

Turning first to 1808, when the user has applied a user input to theportable media device prior to the rotating, then the visual contentpresented by the secondary display is updated based upon the axis ofrotation, the direction of rotation and the user input. It should benoted that this updating occurs prior to the completion of the rotationof the portable media device at which time the updated visual content ispresented by what is now the primary display.

On the other hand, if there had not been a user input prior to therotating, then at 1810, then the visual content presented by thesecondary display is updated based upon the axis of rotation and thedirection of rotation. It should be noted that there are many otherfactors in addition to whether or not the user has applied an input thatcan modify the updating of the visual content. For example, the type ofvisual content being displayed can affect the manner in which the visualcontent on the secondary display is updated.

FIG. 19 shows representative state tree diagram 1900 for portable mediadevice 100 configured as an electronic book (e-book) 100 in accordancewith the described embodiments. E-book 100 can provide the user a numberof optional end states (S) each of which can be path dependent. Forexample, starting at the top of state tree diagram 1900, when theportable media device (PMD) is configured to operate as e-book 100, thetype of document being presented to the user can be determined at 1902.If, for example, the document type is determined to be a book at 1904,then whether or not a user input is applied at 1906 will determine whichbranch, 1908 or 1910, is followed. If, in this case, a user input isapplied, then branch 1908 is followed, otherwise branch 1910 isfollowed. Assuming for the moment that a user input is applied, then onbranch 1908, whether or not e-book 100 is rotated at 1912, willdetermine which branch 1914 or 1916 is followed. If e-book 100 isrotated then branch 1914 is followed that can lead to either state S1 orS2, respectively, if the direction of rotation is clockwise orcounter-clockwise, otherwise state S3 is followed with no rotationLikewise, if branch 1910 was followed based upon the fact that no userinput was applied to e-book 100, then if e-book 100 was rotated thenstates S4 or S5 will be reached, otherwise, state S6.

For example, e-book 100 is presenting page N of Book I on the primarydisplay, then if a user input is applied (such as selecting a word onpage N), and if e-book 100 is rotated counterclockwise, then state S2can be reached which can correspond to providing a definition for theselected word. However, if e-book 100 is rotated clockwise then state S1is reached which can correspond to a new page being displayed, such as anext page Page N+1. Of course, since there are at least 3 possible axesof rotation and the movements applied by the user can be either simpleor compound, the total number of possible end states S can be quitelarge and depend upon the user's preferences.

FIG. 20 shows a flow diagram illustrating process 2000 for using acontrolled movement to modify an operating state of a portable mediadevice (PMD) in accordance with the described embodiments. Process 2000can begin at 2010 with the PMD operating in an initial operating state.For example, if the PMD is configured as an e-book, then the initialoperating state can be that of displaying a page from a book whosecontent is stored in the e-book. At 2004, a determination is madewhether or not the PMD has received a user input. Again, using theexample of the e-book, the user input could take the form of selecting aword, phrase, or sentence from the page currently displayed by thee-book. If no user input is received, then at 2006 a determination ismade whether or not the PMD senses a movement. For example, the movementcan be any of a number of movements provided by a user of the PMD suchas rotating about one or more axes, translation in one or moredirections, and so on. If the PMD does not sense any motion, then noaction is taken and the PMD remains in the initial operating state.However, if the PMD senses movement at 2006, then at 2008, adetermination is made whether or not the movement is recognized. Byrecognized it is meant that the sensed movement can be associated withone of a number of pre-determined movements established by the PMD asthose movements consistent with an action or actions to be taken thatcan alter a current operating state of the PMD. If the sensed movementis not recognized, then no action is taken and the PMD remains in theinitial state. However, if the movement is recognized, then the PMD isset to a final operating state consistent with the recognized movementat 2010. For example, if the PMD is configured to operate as a dualdisplay e-book displaying page N on the primary display, and therecognized movement is a simple rotation, then the final operating statewill be consistent with updating the secondary display to present atable of contents for the book.

Turning back to 2004, if it had been determined that a user input wasreceived, then at 2012 then a determination is made whether or not thePMD senses movement. If no movement is sensed, then the PMD is set to afinal operating state consistent with the received user input at 2014.However, if the PMD senses movement, then at 2016, a determination ismade whether or not the sensed movement is recognized (along the linesof 2008). If the sensed movement is not recognized, then control ispassed directly to 2014 and the PMD is set to the final operating stateconsistent with the user input. However, if the movement is recognized,then the PMD is set to an operating state consistent with both therecognized movement and the user input at 2018. For example, again usingthe dual display e-book example, if the initial condition of the dualdisplay e-book is displaying page N of a book on the primary display andthe user input is selecting a word on that page, and the recognizedmovement is the simple rotation, then the final operating state of thee-book is consistent with the secondary display updated to present apage from a dictionary that includes at least one definition of theselected word.

It should be noted that the final operating state can also be modifiedbased upon the context of any material being presented by the PMD aspart of the initial operating state. For example, if the PMD takes theform of an image viewer configured for displaying images in the form ofstill pictures, then the final operating state will also be consistentwith the context of still images. Alternatively, if the PMD takes theform of a dual display e-book, then the context of the textual datapresented by the primary display will have an effect on the finaloperating state. For example, the context of the textual data presentedcan be that of a book, magazine, the language of the textual data, andso on. Therefore, the particular context of the presented data willaffect the final operating state. For example, if the context of thetextual data is a language that reads left to right, then the finaloperating state will be consistent with reading textual data left toright.

The various aspects, embodiments, implementations or features of thedescribed embodiments can be used separately or in any combination.Various aspects of the described embodiments can be implemented bysoftware, hardware or a combination of hardware and software. Thedescribed embodiments can also be embodied as computer readable code ona computer readable medium for controlling manufacturing operations oras computer readable code on a computer readable medium for controllinga manufacturing line used to fabricate thermoplastic molded parts. Thecomputer readable medium is any data storage device that can store datawhich can thereafter be read by a computer system. Examples of thecomputer readable medium include read-only memory, random-access memory,CD-ROMs, DVDs, magnetic tape, optical data storage devices, and carrierwaves. The computer readable medium can also be distributed overnetwork-coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code isstored and executed in a distributed fashion.

The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specificnomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the describedembodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art thatthe specific details are not required in order to practice the describedembodiments. Thus, the foregoing descriptions of the specificembodiments described herein are presented for purposes of illustrationand description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theembodiments to the precise forms disclosed. It will be apparent to oneof ordinary skill in the art that many modifications and variations arepossible in view of the above teachings.

The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theunderlying principles and concepts and practical applications, tothereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the variousembodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particularuse contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the embodiments bedefined by the following claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for modifying an operation of a portablemedia device, the portable media device having a processor, a user inputdevice, a sensor, and at least a first display and a second displaymounted in a single piece housing such that only one of the displays ispresented at a time, the method comprising: displaying visual content onthe first display; detecting a rotation of the portable media devicewith the sensor; determining an axis of rotation of the portable mediadevice by the processor from at least three recognized axes of rotationand a direction of rotation; receiving a user input through the userinput device, separate from the sensor at the portable media device,wherein the user input includes a selection of a portion of thedisplayed visual content on the first display; and modifying theoperation of the portable media device by the processor based upon thedetermined axis of rotation and the direction of rotation and thereceived user input, wherein modifying the operation of the portablemedia device comprises: updating content presented by the seconddisplay, wherein when the portable media device is an electronic bookarranged to present visual content that includes text using electronicink, then receiving the user input through the user input devicecomprises receiving a selected portion of the text, wherein when thevisual content that includes the text being presented on the firstdisplay is a page from a book stored in the electronic book and thedirection of rotation is a first direction of rotation, then theupdating content presented by the second display comprises: updating thecontent presented by the second display as a dictionary page presentingat least one definition of a selected word in the selected portion ofthe text; and presenting the dictionary page after completion of therotation of the electronic book.
 2. The method as recited in claim 1,wherein the modifying the operation is carried out only if an angle ofrotation of the portable media device is greater than a critical angleof rotation.
 3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein when thedirection of rotation is a second direction of rotation different fromthe first direction of rotation, then the updating content presented bythe second display comprises: updating the content presented by thesecond display as an annotation page arranged to receive information;and presenting the annotation page after completion of the rotation ofthe electronic book.
 4. Computer readable medium for storing in tangibleform computer instructions executable by a processor for modifying anoperation of a portable media device, the portable media device havingthe processor, a sensor, a user input device and at least a firstdisplay and a second display mounted back to back in a single piecehousing such that only one of the displays is presented at a time, thecomputer readable medium comprising: computer code for detecting whenthe portable media device is being rotated; computer code fordetermining an axis of rotation of the portable media device from atleast three recognized axes of rotation and a direction of rotation;computer code for displaying text on the first display; computer codefor receiving an input event through a user input device, wherein theinput event selects a portion of the displayed text; and computer codefor modifying the operation of the portable media device based upon thedetermined axis of rotation and the direction of rotation and thereceived input event, wherein the computer code for modifying theoperation of the portable media device comprises: computer code forupdating content presented by the second display, wherein the portablemedia device is an electronic book arranged to present visual contentusing electronic ink, wherein when the visual content being presented onthe first display is a page from a book stored in the electronic bookand the direction of rotation is a first direction of rotation, then thecomputer code for updating content presented by the second displaycomprises: computer code for updating the content presented by thesecond display as a dictionary page presenting at least one definitionof a selected word in the selected portion of the displayed text; andcomputer code for presenting the dictionary page after completion of therotation of the electronic book.
 5. The computer readable medium asrecited in claim 4, wherein the modifying the operation is carried outonly if an angle of rotation of the portable media device is greaterthan a critical angle of rotation.
 6. The computer readable medium asrecited in claim 4, wherein when the direction of rotation is a seconddirection of rotation different from the first direction of rotation,then the computer code for updating content presented by the seconddisplay comprises: computer code for updating the content presented bythe second display as an annotation page arranged to receiveinformation; computer code for presenting the annotation page aftercompletion of the rotation of the electronic book; and computer code forreceiving information at the annotation page.
 7. A method of operating aportable media device, the portable media device having first and seconddisplays mounted back to back in a housing, the method comprising:displaying page N of a book on the first display; while displaying pageN of the book on the first display and with at least one sensor,detecting rotation of the portable media device around a first axis ofrotation; in response to detecting rotation of the portable media devicearound the first axis of rotation, displaying, on the second display,content other than page N, page N+1, or page N−1 of the book; anddetermining whether the rotation of the portable media device around thefirst axis of rotation is in a first direction or is in a seconddirection, wherein displaying, on the second display, content other thanpage N, page N+1, or page N−1 of the book comprises: whenever therotation of the portable media device around the first axis of rotationis in the second direction, displaying an annotation pad on which a usercan makes notes on the second display.
 8. The method defined in claim 7further comprising: while displaying page N of the book on the firstdisplay and with the at least one sensor, detecting rotation of theportable media device around a second axis of rotation, wherein thesecond axis is substantially perpendicular to the first axis;determining whether the rotation of the portable media device around thesecond axis of rotation is in a first direction or is in a seconddirection; whenever the rotation of the portable media device around thesecond axis of rotation is in the first direction, displaying page N+1of the book on the second display; and whenever the rotation of theportable media device around the second axis of rotation is in thesecond direction, displaying page N−1 of the book on the second display.9. The method defined in claim 7, wherein displaying, on the seconddisplay, content other than page N, page N+1, or page N−1 of the bookcomprises: whenever the rotation of the portable media device around thefirst axis of rotation is in the first direction, displaying a table ofcontents for the book on the second display.
 10. A method of operating aportable media device, the portable media device having first and seconddisplays mounted back to back in a housing, the method comprising:displaying page N of a book on the first display; while displaying pageN of the book on the first display and with at least one sensor,detecting rotation of the portable media device around a first axis ofrotation; in response to detecting rotation of the portable media devicearound the first axis of rotation, displaying, on the second display,content other than page N, page N+1, or page N−1 of the book; prior todetecting rotation of the portable media device around the first axis ofrotation, receiving a user selection of at least one word from page N ofthe book; and determining whether the rotation of the portable mediadevice around the first axis of rotation is in a first direction or isin a second direction, wherein displaying, on the second display,content other than page N, page N+1, or page N−1 of the book comprises:whenever the rotation of the portable media device around the first axisof rotation is in the second direction, displaying a thesaurus entry ofthe at least one selected word on the second display.
 11. The methoddefined in claim 10, wherein displaying, on the second display, contentother than page N, page N+1, or page N−1 of the book comprises: wheneverthe rotation of the portable media device around the first axis ofrotation is in the first direction, displaying a dictionary definitionof the at least one selected word on the second display.
 12. A method ofoperating a portable media device, the portable media device havingfirst and second displays mounted back to back in a housing, the methodcomprising: displaying page N of a book on the first display; whiledisplaying page N of the book on the first display and with at least onesensor, detecting rotation of the portable media device around a firstaxis of rotation; in response to detecting rotation of the portablemedia device around the first axis of rotation, displaying, on thesecond display, content other than page N, page N+1, or page N−1 of thebook; prior to detecting rotation of the portable media device aroundthe first axis of rotation, determining whether or not a user selectionof at least one word from page N of the book has been received; anddetermining whether the rotation of the portable media device around thefirst axis of rotation is in a first direction or is in a seconddirection, wherein displaying, on the second display, content other thanpage N, page N+1, or page N−1 of the book comprises: whenever it isdetermined that no user selection of at least one word from page N ofthe book has been received and whenever the rotation of the portablemedia device around the first axis of rotation is in the firstdirection, displaying a table of contents for the book on the seconddisplay; whenever it is determined that no user selection of at leastone word from page N of the book has been received and whenever therotation of the portable media device around the first axis of rotationis in the second direction, displaying an annotation pad on which a usercan makes notes on the second display; whenever it is determined that auser selection of at least one word from page N of the book has beenreceived and whenever the rotation of the portable media device aroundthe first axis of rotation is in the first direction, displaying adictionary definition of the at least one selected word on the seconddisplay; and whenever it is determined that a user selection of at leastone word from page N of the book has been received and whenever therotation of the portable media device around the first axis of rotationis in the second direction, displaying a thesaurus entry of the at leastone selected word on the second display.
 13. A method of operating aportable media device, the portable media device having first and seconddisplays mounted back to back in a housing, the method comprising:displaying page N of a book on the first display; while displaying pageN of the book on the first display and with at least one sensor,detecting rotation of the portable media device around a first axis ofrotation; and in response to detecting rotation of the portable mediadevice around the first axis of rotation, displaying, on the seconddisplay, content other than page N, page N+1, or page N−1 of the book,wherein displaying, on the second display, content other than page N,page N+1, or page N−1 of the book in response to detecting rotation ofthe portable media device around the first axis of rotation, displayingcomprises displaying, on the second display, at least one of: aninteractive annotation pad that receives at least one of user notes anduser comments; a dictionary definition of at least one user-selectedword; and a thesaurus entry associated with at least one user-selectedword.
 14. A method of operating a portable media device, the portablemedia device having first and second displays mounted back to back in ahousing, the method comprising: displaying page N of a book on the firstdisplay; while displaying page N of the book on the first display andwith at least one sensor, detecting rotation of the portable mediadevice around a first axis of rotation; in response to detectingrotation of the portable media device around the first axis of rotation,displaying, on the second display, content other than page N, page N+1,or page N−1 of the book; prior to detecting rotation of the portablemedia device around the first axis of rotation, receiving a userselection of at least one word from page N of the book; and determiningwhether the rotation of the portable media device around the first axisof rotation is in a first direction or is in a second direction, whereindisplaying, on the second display, content other than page N, page N+1,or page N−1 of the book comprises: whenever the rotation of the portablemedia device around the first axis of rotation is in the firstdirection, displaying a dictionary definition of the at least oneselected word on the second display.